The UK's only female giant panda enjoyed an early Christmas treat as she tucked into a festive-themed cake.

Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo baked the special panda cake for their famous resident Tian Tian and crafted it into the shape of a Christmas tree before it was drizzled with honey.

The cake, made using a secret recipe, was then placed on the climbing frame in her outdoor enclosure where it did not take long for her to find it.

She gently picked off the star-shaped carrot placed on top of the tree before finishing off the rest of the treat.

Panda keeper Alison Maclean, who measured and mixed the ingredients and steamed the cake to perfection, said it was a firm favourite with Tian Tian and the zoo's male panda, Yang Guang.

She said: "She absolutely loves her cake and we knew she would go for it. She's not used to having it in that area of her enclosure but that's quite a good thing - it's nice to get her to search for things and you could see she was walking around, sniffing it out.

"The special Christmas panda cake will contain all the same ingredients as the cakes I regularly bake from scratch right here at the zoo. We are lucky to have been gifted this recipe from our colleagues in China as it supplements a vital part of the giant panda's natural diet.

"It's a common misconception that giant pandas are vegetarians and only eat bamboo however - they are classed as herbivorous carnivores. Pandas may be known for lazing about and munching their way through forests of bamboo which makes up a mighty 99% of their diet; however, they also hunt and catch small rodents as the last 1% of their diet. We feed Tian Tian and Yang Guang panda cake to supplement this protein."

Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine) are the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years after they both arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and will remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade.